


We Have Problems

by notenoughcoffee



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18902626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughcoffee/pseuds/notenoughcoffee
Summary: Jane is tired.





	We Have Problems

Jane rummaged around the bottom of her bag, swiping past hair ties, throat lozenges, tissues, and something she was hoping was not a leaking container of slime that she had confiscated from Anne the day before. Unsuccessful in her search for her keys, she huffed, dropped her shopping to the ground, and propped her knee against the door to hold her bag up so she could see what she was shuffling through. 

 

The slime had leaked.

 

Her shifting had caused it to saturate everything on one half of her bag. 

 

She looked to the sky, silently pleading with whatever higher power was up there to show her just a little mercy on this night.

 

Finally locating her keys, she wiped the one she needed clean of slime and slid it in the lock. Before she could turn it, the bolt shifted and the door swung forward, sending her bag flying onto the floor in the entryway. 

 

Katherine stood in the doorway, eyes wide and brimming with tears. She mumbled a soft, “sorry,” before squeezing past Jane and taking off down the street at a brisk pace. Jane watched her go before reaching to pick up her bag, already knowing that the other half of her bag would not be spared from the electric yellow mess.

 

She collected her shopping and the massacred bag and stepped into the house.

 

“And another thing, Kat, if I find anymore of your disgusting pink hair in the shower drain I will sever your head again myself,” Anne shrieked as she made her way to the door. Noticing that her intended target was long gone, she threw her hands in the air in frustration and turned back the way she had come from.

 

Jane took a fortifying breath before going any further into the house. Lugging her shopping into the kitchen, she had to skirt around Parr who was staring at the piles of washing up that had accumulated on the counter. 

 

“I wanted a cup of tea, but we have no more clean mugs.” 

 

Jane could do nothing more than blink at her in response. She set her bags on the table and began to everything away.

 

“Excellent. I’m famished. We had nothing in the cupboards. Please tell me you remembered the biscuits,” Anna said with exuberance as she bounded into the room, poking through the bags straightaway. “What’s all this stuff? Who eats this?” Not finding what she was looking for, she turned to Jane for answers.

 

Jane gave a one-shouldered shrug before carrying on with her task. 

 

“For the love of all that is holy, please Jane, tell me that you’re going to do some of the laundry tonight. I can’t take the smell of that mountain of dirty clothes for another day,” Aragon shouted from the living room. 

 

“Yeah, and my bedding needs washing again. Katherine’s hair dye got all over it when you washed it with her towel,” Anne’s voice piped up from the same location.

 

Jane closed the cupboard after putting the last item in its place, picked up her sticky, yellow-covered wallet and keys, and made her way back to the front door. Walking straight back out of the house, she set course through the park and toward her favorite pub. She passed Katherine sitting on a park bench, her face red with fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Jane patted her shoulder gently as she walked past, only half-hearing her complaints about Anne being mean.

The quiet ambience of the pub soothed her at once. She had just arranged herself in a corner booth after ordering a salad and a glass of wine when she caught sight of all the girls walking through the door.

 

“Jane, the bathroom hasn’t been cleaned in ages,” Anne said slipping into the booth and jostling Jane in the process.

 

“No one has done the washing up, either. When is that going to be done so I can start making my own tea again?” Parr inquired, sitting across from Jane.

 

“I’ve had to go out and buy every meal for days. There’s no food in the house,” Anna spoke next, sliding next to Anne.

 

“The laundry needs doing, too. It is making the whole house smell,” Aragon stated as she settled next to Parr. 

 

Katherine bit her lip as she stood awkwardly at the end of the table. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she looked too intimidated to join them all at the crowded table. 

 

Jane took several sips of her wine before she looked at each of them and said simply, “I know.”

 

“You know? What does that mean?” Anne asked incredulously. 

 

“It means that I know.”

 

The girls stared at her, dumbfounded. 

 

“Okay… so you know what is happening? ‘Cause we’d sure like to know too,” Anna said slowly, as if she were talking to an invalid.

 

“There are so many problems, God help us, I don’t even know where to begin to explain them all,” Aragon said, letting some of her frustration show.

 

“Stop telling me we have problems,” Jane set her wine glass down and looked at each of the women. “I  _ know _ we have problems, and I’m trying my hardest to ignore them.”

 

Astonished faces scrutinized her. 

 

“Four days,” she said by way of explanation. Again, she was met with confounded looks. “It took you four days to notice that I stopped doing all of the housework, and it took you four days to turn the house into an absolute wreck.” 

 

She could see some of their puzzlement begin to clear away. Now that the curtain had been lifted, a few of them had the good sense to look slightly embarrassed, although Anne still gawked at her, mystified. 

 

“We all might have been used to having other people look after us in another time, but here and now, I was the only one doing any of the work. I’m exhausted, and I’m done looking after you lot. Now, if you’d be so kind as to take yourselves and your problems back to the house, I’d like to enjoy my dinner in peace.”

 

Shame-faced, all but Anne stood from the table to take their leave.

 

“Wait, but what? You’re just going to leave the house like that?” She exclaimed, bewildered still. 

  
Parr shushed her and tugged at her arm to get her to leave the booth. 

 

“But really, though? Is she going to leave it like that?”

 

“Shut up, Anne,” Aragon hissed as she joined Parr in pulling Anne along.

 

***

 

A second glass of wine later, Jane made her way back to the house. Upon opening the door, she was met, unexpectedly, with quietness. 

 

The mountain of dishes were no longer growing colonies of bacteria, and were instead drying on the rack. She noticed a few more groceries from the corner shop lining the counter. When she walked past the bathroom, the unmistakable gleam of a scrubbed shower greeted her. She made her way upstairs and was grateful, at least, to smell copious amounts of fabric refresher, instead of the musty, dirty clothes. Although the mound of clothing was still there, it was better than she had hoped.

 

She was most thankful, however, for the tranquility that she had been searching for was present as she made her way to her bedroom. The previously inescapable bickering and shouting had, at least for this moment, ceased. 

 

It had certainly been a long and disgusting four days she wasn’t sure she would survive. Though the breaking point had occurred three whole days before Jane had expected it to, the underlying smell of sweaty apparel reminded her that she had resigned to forfeiting her plan as soon as she had finished her dinner that night. 

 

She put the first load of laundry in the machine and went to pour herself another glass of wine.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Stop telling me we have problems. I know we have problems. I'm trying my hardest to ignore them."


End file.
